“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”

Writer’s Journey

Last year, I grabbed The Witching Hour by Silver Ravenwolf while I was at Barnes and Noble. Interesting book, if you haven’t read it, lots of practical advice in simple laymen terms.

I don’t know about you but nothing irritates me more than when an author pulls out these fancy smancy words and I have to grab a dictionary to read their book.

Okay, I’ll quit wandering off topic and get back to our topic

Meditations and witchcraft.

We’ve talked about people and energy fields and the vast opportunities these fields invite from change, reinventing, or simply clearing our spiritual bodies. We’ve discussed colors associated with these energy fields. However, not everyone is skilled enough to read these energy fields/ auras.

What I enjoyed reading was how Ms. Ravenwolf uses her skills to read people. She closes her eyes and thinks about the person in the present time and how they are acting at that moment. She then reaches out to the universe, and nature seeking a connection that correlates with the person at that moment in time. She would request images or mental pictures to understand what the person needed to solve their problem or why they were reacting as they are.

I thought that this was an interesting approach and maybe I could fine tune my psychic skills. My strengths before I was injured in 2011 was I could see colors around people easily. It terrified me at first but then I found it comforting because forewarned was always better than being caught off guard with negativity.

Then I had the brain injury and my ability to process changed drastically. I had to find a way to function in my own pain cycle and learn to focus my mind again. Meditation was very helpful to me although I never regained the visual imagery of color. Instead, my hearing became acuter. Because, my hearing is off the scales now it offers different opportunities. I hear the energy and then by studying the person’s actions, I make different assessments based on what I’ve read and used in the past about different auras.

Ravenwolf discussed having your body being prepared for the readings such as a spiritual bath, deep breathing or mental clearing. For me, mental clearing has served me well. I don’t want my personal baggage interfering with the person I’m reading. It’s not like we always have the time to prepare but doing the best we can matters.

Anyway back to Ravenwolf’s process, it appealed to me because I am very much in tune with nature. So I decided to try her path and see how it works. I focused on the person and said their full name three times and than inquired with the universe and nature to provide me with nature images that would be beneficial to that person. I scribbled everything that came to mind so I could study the images. She stressed not being judgmental, just go with what comes to mind during the visualization and meditation.

I talked with different friends in the craft and they agreed with her assessment as it being very shamanic and intuitive.

What I discovered in following this path my focus improved and my visualizations along with the energy I heard helped me understand the person and their needs much better and I was able to be more helpful when needed. I also discovered it helped me fine tune my relationships and eliminate the negative energy people draining me.

Like for instance this one person every time I followed her method and visualized with the universe’s help the image that came to mind after saying the person’s name was poison ivy, the shiny five leaves were distinct. This person always caused stress and I felt like my skin was irritated but no rash or visual sign appeared but once I ended our relationship I no longer had hypersensitive skin. I should have listened to my body’s warning signs but didn’t. My hearing felt overstimulated and I didn’t feel balanced. Yet I dismissed it because we’d been friends for years. I minimize my time with the person and take extra precautions for myself to minimize her effect on me .

The bottom ls to fine tune your psychic skills and the method that works best for you. Blessed be

Do you find yourself conflicted? You’re not alone. All of us seek unity within ourselves and with heaven and earth. But getting there seems challenging if not impossible. How do we develop a keener understanding of our self?

That’s where understanding the impact of our actions is vital. Reflection on unity through meditation allows the watery realms of our emotions to become clearer. We react and feel for reasons that are frequently unclear because we get so overwhelmed with stress and life’s complications. Shining a light on our emotions and reactions will help us evolve into our fullest potential. We need to embrace our psychic powers, use the awareness to guide our responses and reactions. They’re a natural part of us and within our power to change because we are always in a constant cyclic state of growth and change. Sadly, many of us fear growth and evolution. That fear handicaps us.

Reality is growth and change are inevitable and unavoidable. We are here to live and experience life and to fear less so we can reach our fullest potential.

“The death of fear is in doing what you fear to do.” — Sequichie Comingdeer

“Magic is not always serious or solemn. It is a joyous celebration and merging with the life-force.” — Scott Cunningham.

“Good energy was never meant to be waisted on idiocy.” – Silver RavenWolf.

“Magic is natural. It is a harmonious movement of energies to create a needed change.” — Scott Cunningham.

“A witch is someone who has dedicated her life to learning about the connections between things. She studies the different cycles and her place in them. She learns how to use the energy in herself and in the world to make changes. And most of all, she tries to make the world a better place for herself and other people.” — Isobel Bird

As humans, we are a complicated and often disorganized mass of processes that include our brain, mind, heart, emotions, and body. Many of us seek the craft as a means to clear the clutter and free ourselves of the chaos unaware that true enlightenment begins inside and not by casting a spell. Don’t get me wrong spells can be fun and powerful but they don’t resolve deeper-seated issues.

Merriam-Webster defines psyche as the soul, mind, or personality of a person or group. For simplicity sake, let’s go with this metaphor an iceberg. It looks like a hunk of ice but reality it is encompassed with many layers that all tell a story. Humans are definitely complicated stories that continuously

evolve, sometimes smoothly and other times all over the place.

“The human psyche is also different layers:

1. The spirit-which is your higher self, a part of the world of the divine, and the ultimate source of inspiration and guidance.

2 The mental level which includes the conscious rational mind. ( I know in some of us rational is questionable.) It receives information from our emotional and instinctual level and directives from the spiritual level.

3. The astral being includes the emotional and instinctual level. At its highest level, it is conscious and engages the mind, at its lowest level it is unconscious and engages with life functions of the physical body.

4. The physical body includes the cerebrospinal and autonomic nervous systems and the digestive and glandular organs. They all interact with the emotional and instinctual level. Laymen’s terms the physical body is the instrument of your actions in the physical world.” ~ Denning and Phillips.

All of our psychic powers begin at the astral level, some individuals are more in touch function at a fairly high level are considered telepathic. The majority of us either interact with ordinary emotions or the imagination with signals that come from the middle astral level or from the material plane and receive their signals from the lower astral level.

With this noted those with more advanced psychic powers communicate through the energy of auras which emanates continually from the astral body. This is the basic instrument of telepathy, those lucky individuals can transmit and receive.

Other individuals gather information from the collective unconscious by emphasizing symbols and images. While other individuals gather information from projections of astral substance. Spirit rapping or spontaneous telekinesis are examples of astral projections.

What is important with all this information is our relationship with the material world. Consider this our bodies are the instruments of our actions in the material world and ultimately our manifestation. Consider all the information we gather daily through our five senses, our interactions in nature, and the cosmos everything is connected. It is a collective consciousness that continues to develop daily as Lena Kristin Olsen frequently reminds us in her morning posts. How do we perceive the day and how will we engage in that day?

The question to ask is our mind our worst enemy? That choice is ours, it can be friend or foe, depending on how we use it. Our mind can be a magickal place or a flaming habitat of hell. It is within us to heal our bodies and mind into a peaceful place by daily practice of meditation and communing with your deity or the goddess.

” Lead me from the unreal to the real! Lead me from darkness to light”~ The Upanishads

As you close your eyes this evening consider what your cosmic influence is really. How can you use your psychic skills to better your life and that of your loved ones? Blessed be.

Do you ever feel so drained from dealing with other people? I sometimes feel like a wet mop dragged through the trash all day. Sadly, some people are like energy vampires literally sucking me dry. By day’s end, all I wanted to do is curl up into a ball.

Then I learned the importance of purging my own auric field. Yup, kinda like aural hygiene. I know it’s hard not to be a psychic sponge, we naturally want to help people and leave our auras open making us over-sensitive and vulnerable.

Auric self-defense is really easy and as the old saying goes an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Speaking affirmations of inner divine protection several times a day helps your aura grow stronger and more powerful. I frequently say them before I speak with annoying family members, or when I have to do something stressful. Trust me I find it very helpful especially when I see my mother dearest 🙂

By speaking these affirmations I close my aura to the lower vibrational levels of mind and open myself to the Goddess.

This is my affirmation:

I am in control, I am one with the Goddess.

I am the only authority in my life

I am divinely protected by the light of the Goddess.

I am divinely protected by the light of my being.

I am divinely protected by my sisters and brothers of the craft.

I close off my aura and body of light

to the lower astral levels of mind and negativity

Now and forevermore.

Blessed be. So mote it be.

Feel free to incorporate into your daily life, I’m positive you will feel less stressed and have more energy.

“Sometimes you don’t realize your own strength until you come face to face with your greatest weakness.”~ Susan Gale.

“You never know how strong you are… until being strong is the only choice you have.”~ Cayla Mills.

Have you ever stood next to someone and feel a powerful, delightful vibration? You feel drawn to them and want to spend more time with them

Have you ever stood next to someone and gotten a chill up your spine or felt repulsed? Oh yeah, too many times.

Can you tell immediately that you like someone or not?

Have you ever felt someone was standing to close and you had moved back instantly without knowing why?

This psychic energy or prana energy is in layman terms our sixth sense. It affects each of us differently. “The sixth sense is another term for extrasensory perception. Extrasensory perception (ESP) involves the reception of information not gained through the recognized senses and not internally originated.”~ Wikipedia. I’ve read books where the author stresses psychic energy and others that stress it is prana energy which is why I’ve noted both. According to Susan Shumsky, “Prana is the power within all things from basic particles to complex life forms. As the finest vital force in everything, prana manifests on the physical plane as motion and on the mental plane as thought. Prana is in the air, yet it is not oxygen or any other physical constituent. All living things absorb prana with every breath.” However, without prana, no organism would exist. Prana is life itself. Our bodies are alive because of prana. This energy is drained by our every thought, word, and deed and continuously replenished as well.

Psychic skills involve sensing or reading energy and then interpreting it without using the physical senses. This awareness is achieved directly from the subject matter and not by telepathy from the mind of another. Sensory details are important because they trigger the unconscious mind.

Learning to fine-tune the way our body and mind process information around us expands our well-being and our witchcraft skills.

For me, my sixth sense has protected me many times in my life. Some people refer to that feeling as a gut feeling but I always say it’s my sixth sense. I trust it instinctively now. Learning to trust the energy you sense will enrich your skills.

I’m sure there are people in this group that are more knowledgeable on prana energy than me and I would love for you to join in on the conversation. How do you use it to enhance your skills?

Finding inner peace is vital to the intellectual attainment we seek. What I need to achieve inner serenity is different than what it will be for you. Meditation to free one’s self is the key because carrying all that extra baggage (negative energy) hinders us in psychic development but also our everyday interactions. We don’t realize how much the bias influences everything we do. I know you’ve probably heard it before, but I’m going to repeat it. Let it go, don’t hinder yourself one moment longer.

Our planet is undergoing a major spiritual transition, and many individuals are struggling to find balance in their lives. People are seeking the old familiar ways more than ever. One thing that is clear the self-reliant and self-sufficient will flourish whereas the less capable will suffer. That’s why it is so vital to take control of our inner stability and strength.

Practicing meditation is the most profound way to increase our psychic awareness and our life. I suggest you read a reflection you find relaxing out loud and record it on your computer, phone or tape recorder so you can hear your voice as you meditate. Keep in mind we’re all unique, so it should be something that relates to you.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Hebrew proverb, “ Let the light penetrate the darkness until the darkness shines and there is no longer any division between the two,” but I find it a comforting reminder.

I’ve provided some helpful links if you’re not familiar with meditation.

Now, you’re probably wondering why this is important to our witchcraft. To use our magickal powers, we need to be able to focus, generate positive energy into the air and to connect with the goddess or god. After all, what’s the fun in being a witch if we’re not good at it. Especially since our psyche is a hidden doorway that is never closed into our collective unconsciousness first, then into the human race and beyond. Anything worth doing is worth mastering all the tools available.

Interaction in the human world at times is frustrating and exhausting but unfortunately necessary. So with that mind, it’s important in the development of your psychic powers to find a way to interact without losing one’s mind. As humans we vary drastically, some of us have a keen interest in people whereas others only want to get as far away as possible. I get it. I have my moments as well.
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I’ve known people who prefer the planets, and yes it is a fascinating use of psychic powers. However, in reality, the higher a tree grows, the greater roots it needs to flourish. Our connection with people is essential to us same as the roots are to a tree.

Genuine interest in people is what matters. Expand your human contacts, The interest you show may be the beginning of real friendships but it also fosters understanding, compassion and psychic relatedness.

People consciously or not offer opportunities for genuine interaction all the time. Like for instance, someone posts or shares with you in real time a picture of something that matters to them. The opportunity is more than simply saying that’s nice or giving them a heart. It’s the perfect time to share in their life and have a glimpse into their world. It’s a moment of psychic awareness or relatedness in addition to furthering communication by letting people see the genuine warmth inside us we also hone our psychic skills.

Sadly, there are people we need to be wary of. Learning to recognize this will also help you from wasting precious time.

Being a good listener offers many rewards and the greatest joy is seeing a total stranger glow from your simple exchange.

In our desire to expand our psychic awareness we should never let it disturb our inner peace of mind, for any inward conflict will sabotage our achievements. Our psychic powers are part of our natural heritage but sadly we’ve distanced ourselves by using all the electronics we depend on daily.

Tomorrow, I discuss inner peace with you in Part 3 of this post on psychic awareness. Hope this finds you all in a magickally happy place. Blessed be.

Have you considered how important your attitude and way of life are to your psychic development? Research indicates that the best possible attitude enhances psychic development. Who doesn’t desire an inner feeling of happiness in their life? How many times have you heard boredom and stress are detrimental to your health? Which is why as adults we need to have fun. Spiritually it is so important. Our psychic abilities are all manifestations of life that exist as forms of energy. Positive energy we all need to live happy and fulfilled lives. But how can we encourage positive energy? People who live continually in contact with the natural world are more likely to be more psychic. Remember the last time you slept under the stars how energized you felt the next day. Imagine if you did it for three nights in a row. Researchers from Native Americans and African religions provide examples of how people have improved their psychic development by just getting in tune with the natural world. These skills helped them function better in their everyday human connections as well.
I encourage a long-term link with the natural world like astronomy or bird-watching or gardening. Whatever time you spend in the natural world, embrace your hobby but do take time to appreciate the sky above the ground below. Before you know you will steadily fill your psychic well without stress or strain. And it’s a lot more enjoyable than sitting on a hill waiting moment after moment to see if you will develop psychic skills.
Keep in mind this is only one step in uniting your psychic abilities in my opinion. Next. I’ll discuss the human connection. Until then blessed be.

I said fate plays a game without a score,
and who needs fish if you’ve got caviar?
The triumph of the Gothic style would come to pass
and turn you on–no need for coke, or grass.
I sit by the window. Outside, an aspen.0
When I loved, I loved deeply. It wasn’t often.

I said the forest’s only part of a tree.
Who needs the whole girl if you’ve got her knee?
Sick of the dust raised by the modern era,
the Russian eye would rest on an Estonian spire.
I sit by the window. The dishes are done.
I was happy here. But I won’t be again.

I wrote: The bulb looks at the flower in fear,
and love, as an act, lacks a verb; the zer-
o Euclid thought the vanishing point became
wasn’t math–it was the nothingness of Time.
I sit by the window. And while I sit
my youth comes back. Sometimes I’d smile. Or spit.

I said that the leaf may destroy the bud;
what’s fertile falls in fallow soil–a dud;
that on the flat field, the unshadowed plain
nature spills the seeds of trees in vain.
I sit by the window. Hands lock my knees.
My heavy shadow’s my squat company.

My song was out of tune, my voice was cracked,
but at least no chorus can ever sing it back.
That talk like this reaps no reward bewilders
no one–no one’s legs rest on my shoulders.
I sit by the window in the dark. Like an express,
the waves behind the wavelike curtain crash.

A loyal subject of these second-rate years,
I proudly admit that my finest ideas
are second-rate, and may the future take them
as trophies of my struggle against suffocation.
I sit in the dark. And it would be hard to figure out
which is worse; the dark inside, or the darkness out.

“For darkness restores what light cannot repair.” ― Joseph Brodsky

Elegy

by Joseph Brodsky

It’s not that the Muse feels like clamming up,
it’s more like high time for the lad’s last nap.
And the scarf-waving lass who wished him the best
drives a steamroller across his chest.

And the words won’t rise either like that rod
or like logs to rejoin their old grove’s sweet rot,
and, like eggs in the frying pan, the face
spills its eyes all over the pillowcase.

Are you warm tonight under those six veils
in that basin of yours whose strung bottom wails;
where like fish that gasp at the foreign blue
my raw lip was catching what then was you?

I would have hare’s ears sewn to my bald head,
in thick woods, for your sake, I’d gulp drops of lead,
and from black gnarled snags in the oil-smooth pond
I’d bob up to your face as some Tirpitz won’t.

But it’s not on the cards or the waiter’s tray,
and it pains to say where one’s hair turns gray.
There are more blue veins than the blood to swell
their dried web, let alone some remote brain cell.

We are parting for good, my friend, that’s that.
Draw an empty circle on your yellow pad.
This will be me: no insides in thrall.
Stare at it a while, then erase the scrawl.

“For a writer, only one form of patriotism exists: his attitude toward language.” ― Joseph Brodsky

Have you ever wondered why as women we fall into sexist traps? Is false flattery necessary for our self-esteem? Are we so oblivious to this pattern, we hold ourselves back from reaching our full potential? Has it become more accessible to sound liberated than to go through the problematic psychological changes necessary to become liberated from sexual stereotypes?

The more I embrace Wicca, the more I realize how restrictive my life is. I failed to see how much my life has been determined by male chauvinism. A society defined by male needs. Recently, I heard my eldest son and longtime male friends spout NRA male driven propaganda crap creating panic over the right to own guns. It saddened me how much his father and men like influenced him. Our children’s right to be safe wasn’t a priority.

Daily, the different news spouts about a president who brags he’s a pussy grabber. His blatant disrespect of his wife, family are condoned by his male counterparts. His accepted lies are proof that we exist in a male run, man-made society. Even the media is an extension of the patriarchy that has denied women throughout time. We’ve been crippled by tradition. We are the product sadly of two thousand years of suppression and oppression.

Seeking spiritual guidance is disappointing because the vast majority is led by men. It’s the driving factor for me in seeking Wicca because there isn’t as strong a male influence as other religions.

I read a comparison of our society recently as a tree, metaphorically traditions are merely roots and roots are only one part of the whole tree. The roots provide a base but don’t define the shape or the beauty of the tree as it reaches its potential. It’s the external influences that impact the tree the most. I ask why is it so impossible to see men and women exactly the same except for a minute anatomical difference? It saddens me the answer is primarily because we are socially conditioned to believe otherwise.

I’ve believed for a long time we must embrace a society without gender or role divisions for us to evolve to our full potential as human beings and for discrimination to end. We need to rethink the male-female polarity if the change is going to happen and embrace chromosomal diversity. Sadly, women have been brainwashed in a patriarchal society for so many years they’ve forgotten how to use their positive energy for a better world. We’ve made progress with women’s spiritually, but, we haven’t found a solution for our co-existence because women still seek safe harbors from men instead of working together for human potential. We can’t remain divided or become stagnant if our children’s future is going to be better.

Rupi Kaur says “The most significant lesson a woman can learn is from day one… a woman has everything she needs within herself. It’s the world that has convinced women otherwise.”

Change is inevitable

Reflect, absorb and embrace life
Imitate all things to make one smile
Experience what one should not miss

Resist familiarity, embrace change
Intuition says to be careful but not incapaciated
Excel in ways you never dreamed possible

Reality may knock on your door but
Inspiration will incite desire
Expect prosperity and love as a norm